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my own RAce 1] 7J Miguel DuHamel ®® Aaron Gobert threatening presence to the end, finishing a shadow fourth after taking last lap shots at Yamaha's Hacking and Buckmaster. "Going into the right hander before Thunder Valley, I put it up under [Jamie] Hacking," Spies said. "I went in there real aggressive, but I straightened it up, straight up and down, so I could brake without being leaned over then turning it in, so I wasn't going to crash into him or do anything stupid. We came out of there, and he got a handful of throttle and came back by me on the straightaway. I had a go at Damon [Buckmaster] in the last corner, and we just couldn't get it done. I was happy with that because we ran the lead group down." Pascal Picotte rode his Yamaha R6 to fifth, the Canadian-spec bike not nearly as fast or well handling as its American counterparts. Then it was back to Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo just in front of the Erion Honda of Roger Lee Hayden, with Aaron Gobert a close eighth. eN DNF American Honda's Miguel DuHamel lost the front end in the same right hand comer where Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts had crashed a day earlier. He also fell coming onto the front straight on the first lap of Sunday's Superbike race. The only rider to pull double duty in Supersport and Superbike, DuHamel was looking forward to the two races after a Saturday that was filled with practice, qualifying and the first Superbike race. "It's really embarrassing for me to hit the ground twice, 600 and Superbike. On the 600, the same place as Kurtis. Lost the front. The pace in the 600 race was pretty slow, and I was keeping hope to get up there to that lead group; I was just about half a second behind. I was just being smooth." 8th Yamaha's Aaron Gobert is still recovering from the wrist he broke during Formula Xtreme practice at Road America and trying to move up in the standings to give Yamaha 1-2-3 in the points. "Having a one-two-three at the top would be really good for Yamaha, and that's the reason I tried to ride at the four-week mark at Laguna," Gobert said. "It's been agonizing pain at the end of the race. Even to do the first few laps at the start of the race hard and qualifying, I can only do a few laps quick. That was it really. I just didn't have the strength or intensity at the start, and after eight laps, I was doing the same laps as the leaders, but they were eight, 10 seconds ahead. I'm just waiting for it to come back to strength because right now it's just muscle memory that gets me through the weekend. I'm looking forward to VIR when I'm back to 100-percent health and I can at least ride hard. That should show." ~ 1] 1] Pascal Picotte 5th Former AMA fixture Pascal Picotte wants back in. The French-Canadian formed his own Yamaha team to contest the Parts Canada Superbike Series, but what he wants most is to return to the United States in 2005. Which is why he continues to dip south of the border to showcase his talents whenever possible. Restrictions on moclifications mean that his Canadian spec Yamaha R6 isn't the match for the AMA equipment, but that didn't stop him from shaking up the lead pack. "For what we had to work with it's pretty good: Picotte said. "If we had a little bit more horsepower, we'd have been fine, because they were passing me on the straightaway. Other than that the bike worked pretty good." Picotte said he picked up a front-end chatter, the result of not being able to change fork intemals in Canada. "Every time I was blocked by these guys because I kept the corner speed a little bit higher, because I couldn't go fast on the straightaway. So I had to make up the time somewhere. So every time I was blocked, and not being able to put a lap together, I would lose a little bit of touch with the lead guys. When I passed (Jason) DiSalvo and Roger Lee (Hayden), I had a little gap, so I could put a couple laps together. Even then I don't think I would have been able to do much with the guys in front of me, because their bikes were too strong and there wasn't much I could do Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Results: July 27, 2003 lRound 91 with it. n @® Tony Meiring ~~ Tommy Hayden 9th PRO HONDA OILS SUPERSPORT: I. J.ke Zemke (Hon); 2. Jamie Hlicking (Yam); 3. Damon Buckmaster (Yam); 4. Ben Spies (Suz); 5. Pllscal Picotte (Yam): 6. Jason DiSalvo (Yam); 7. Roger Lee Hayden (Hon); 6. Aaron Gobert (Yllm); 9. Tony Meiring (KllW); to. Tommy Hayden (KllW); 11. Alex Gobert (Hon); 12. Christopher Rankin (Hon); 13. Chris Peds (Hon); 14. Jllson Curtis (Hon); 15. Dirk Sanchez (Kaw); 16. Nllthan Dressman (Vern); 17. Giovanni Rojas (Vam); 16. Daniel Doty (Hon); 19. Jllmes Kerker (Hon); 20. Jamie Stauffer (Suz); 21. Michael Morgan (Suz); 22. Joseph Ford (Yam); 23. Daivd Guy (Suz); 24. Chad Klock (Kaw); 25. Michllel Radke (Yam); 26. Darby Brauning (Yllm); 27. Jonas McCluskey (Su,): 28. D.rren Luck (SUl): 29. Miguel DuHamel (Hon); 30. Jake Johnson (Hon); 31. Marty Craggill (Hon); 32. Jeremy Hlliduk (Yam). TIme: 24 min., 27.320 sec. Distance: 16 laps, 38.4 miles Average speed: 94.2 mph Margin of victory: 0.597 sec. PRO HONDA OILS SUPERSPORT C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 9 of 11 rounds): 1. Jllmie Hacking (285/4 wins); 2. Damon Buckmaster (255); 3. Ben Spies (202): 4. (TIE) J.ke Zemke (19811)/Alex Gobert (198); 6. Roger Lee H.yden (189); 7. Tony Meiring (187); 8. Aaron Gobert (185); 9. Tommy Hayden (181); 10. Jllson DiSalvo (180); I I. Jason Curtis ( 141); 12. Jamie Stauffer (136.); 13. Miguel DuHamel (131/1): 14. Doug Chandler (110); 15. Chris Peds (93); 16. Giovanni ROjllS (79); 17. Marty Cragg ill (68); 18. Ty Howard (65): 19. Dirk Sanchez (62): 20. Pascal Picotte (49). Kawasaki's Tony Meiring raced with his teammate, Tommy Hayden, just edging him at the end. For Meiring, the difference was in his choice of soft compound Dunlop tires. "We tried all weekend to try to get the medium tires to work," Meiring said_ "With my style of riding I couldn't quite get them to work. Usually I run harder stuff than everybody. 1 couldn't get it to work, and I went out on the soft, and I said, 'You know what, it's going to have to work.' They worked great. They held up just perfect. I think that's maybe when I was able to put in a couple of really good hard laps. I got it up behind Aarpn (Gobert), and I just put it in a little bit too hard in the hard braking right down the back straightaway, and I kind of blew it a little bit. And I had to make up a lot of time, which was kind of hard with the lapped traffic and anything." 10th Tommy Hayden just never got going this weekend, and he knows the timing wasn't great. With two races remaining, he sits ninth in points in a class he was hoping to win this year as a springboard to better things in 2004. As always, the Kawasaki rider was honest in his assessment. "The bike was definitely the best it's been all weekend in the race. I struggled all week, me and the bike and the track all haven't got along, all fighting each other all weekend. The bike was a lot better in the race. Took me a little bit too long for me to realize how much better it was and wasted some time." which way to go," Hacking said. "He chose the outside, and one guy ran wide, and the other guy, I don't know what he was doing. I thought he was going in the pits for a minute. But he went to the left, and I was like, this is crazy, this can't happen. I mean, I just went shot right down the middle." Hacking nearly lost second when he hit a rut in the Carousel, wobbling, panicking, before recovering to take second. "I looked like the biggest retard," he said. "But I knew Damon was on me, and I didn't know how bad he got held up." It took Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies a few laps to catch up to the lead pack, but, once there, he was a Upcoming rounds: Round 10 - Alton, Virginia, August 31 Rounc 11 - Birmingham, Alabama, September 21 Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme everybody so I could cruise around the last couple of laps." The lead grew bigger, then Spies backed it down to cross the line with 4.092 seconds in hand, his 97.2 mph average speed a new record. He completed the 16-lap, 38.4-mile race in 23 minutes, 41.680 seconds. The cast behind Spies changed constantly, Buckmaster there for the first three laps, then Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's "Crusty" Fergusson, then Erion Honda's Jake Zemke, who held the spot across the line after passing Fergusson on his second try at the end of the back straight. "Just going into the start of the race, I didn't have any idea how my bike was going to handle or react or do anything," said Zemke, who'd started the day by winning the Pro Honda Oils Supers port race. "Basically, I was riding on something I hadn't ridden all weekend." Round B: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course THE YOSHIMURA GETS ANOTHER LEG UP ON HIS FIRST CAREER TITLE STORY AND PHOTO BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS LEXlNGTON, OH, JULY 27 oshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies got the California monkey off his back today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Up until today, all three of his Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme wins had come at California tracks, California Speedway, Infineon Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. In the final race of a hot, humid Sunday afternoon, Spies broadened his field of victory, adding the state of Ohio to his map of suc- Y cess with a f1ag-to-f1ag record-setting win from the pole position. The win, in the waning stages of the season, put him in a strong position to win his first class championship. With two rounds remaining, he leads Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster by 21 points, 250 to 229. Buckmaster struggled with traction problems to a seventh place finish. "I'd like to win the last two," Spies said of the final two rounds at Virginia International Raceway and Barber Motorsports Park. "If it's easy, we'll win them, if not we'll try to sit back and see what we can do." From the start Spies made it clear he meant business. Ending the second lap he had nearly three seconds in hand with over four on the field ending the third lap. "That's my goal this year is to get going on the first few laps really fast because I'm going to have to do that next year in Superbike," he said. "I got an all right first lap. It wasn't perfect, but it was really windy on the first lap, and I could feel the bike blowing around a lot. On the second lap I just tried to hit all my marks the next few lap and got away from cue I .. n .. _ S • AUGUST 6, 2003 27